Nick Shirley highlights Minnesota fraud long ignored

Should anyone be shocked at the allegations coming out of Minnesota about widespread fraud in health and social services payments? Not really, the allegations go back years, and in some instances, there have been convictions for fraud-related to daycare centres, school food programs and more.

Nick Shirley — the MAGA online influencer and YouTuber, with more than 1 million subscribers — got people talking about this over Christmas with a viral video showing what appears to be fraud.

He visited daycare centres that receive millions in government funding for children from low-income families and yet there were no children present. While Shirley got conversation going online, the story stretches back years.

There were reports in 2017 and 2018, charges against daycare operators and nutrition program providers and even claims that money was ending up in the hands of a Somali terror group.

Past investigations uncovered overseas money transfers and daycare scams

Fox 9, a local television station in Minneapolis not only reported on daycare fraud back in 2018, they reported that the money was leaving the country en masse.

The report went on to claim that part of the money was ending up in the hands of the al-Shabab terrorist group in Somali. The article even included comment from a member of the local Somali community who said he wanted to stop the flow of fraudulent money going to shady daycare operators and being shipped overseas.

Democrats downplayed the issue and critics were dismissed as racist

What happened next is all too typical.

It found widespread fraud, including owners of daycare centres found to be defrauding the taxpayer, moving the money out of the country.

Everything the Trump administration is alleging now has been uncovered in the past, it just wasn’t dealt with. In addition to daycare fraud, what was described as the largest fraud scheme in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic was uncovered in Minnesota in 2022.

FBI now pledges more resources as new allegations surface

It all sounds very familiar to what we are hearing today.

Why wasn’t the widespread fraud uncovered in daycare and school nutrition programs seen as a warning sign, a reason to look at other programs and institute changes that would protect taxpayers?

These fraudulent activities were happening when Tim Walz was serving Minnesota in the House of Representatives from 2007-2019. Reports on the fraudulent activity, like the one from the Office of the Legislative Auditor were landing on his desk shortly after he was sworn in as governor in January 2019.

Yet, he did nothing at the time and now facing more allegations of widespread fraud, Walz is resorting to claims of racism, of false stories, of a Republican witch hunt. He’s more worried about offending voting blocs, ethnic and otherwise, inside his electoral coalition than he is about the state coffers being pillaged by fraudsters.

While Walz wants to ignore this issue, FBI Director Kash Patel is taking it seriously and promised a surge in resources.

“However, even before the public conversation escalated online, the FBI had surged personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs. Fraud that steals from taxpayers and robs vulnerable children will remain a top FBI priority in Minnesota and nationwide.”

The evidence already exists for the widespread fraud; the question this time is whether anything will come of these revelations, or will they just be ignored once more.